2023 Guber Polls: Uzodimma warns Labour Party, says Imo belongs to APC

In the build-up to the Saturday, November 11 gubernatorial elections, the Imo state government has warned opposition parties, especially the Labour Party, that the state belongs to the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC) and cannot be unseated.

According to a statement issued by the special adviser to Governor Hope Uzodinmma on public communication, Collins Ughalaa, the government advised the Labour Party to restructure its organisation before considering unseating the incumbent party.

As reported by the Punch newspaper, Ughalaa revealed that the leadership of the Imo state chapter of the Labour Party has been in a heated rift over an alleged imposition of a caretaker committee. Ughalaa said: “...18 notable leaders of the party, including nine governorship aspirants, rejected the imposition of a caretaker committee, describing it as ill-timed and lacking in proper consultation.

“The imposed caretaker committee chairman, Festus Onyekwulisi, in an effort to justify his imposition, boasted before journalists that the Labour Party would sack Governor Hope Uzodimma during the next election and such other mumbo jumbo."

The governor's aide boasted that no other candidate in the state has the capacity and profile of Governor Uzodinmma.

He said: “By the special will of God, Governor Hope Uzodimma is seated like the Rock of Gibraltar, and no boastful claim made under exuberance can remove him. Hope Uzodimma and Imo people are like five and six – they are intertwined, like conjoined twins, and cannot be severed by mere hallucinations."